Selma Gerf (1858- 1940) is a Swedish female writer. 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature Prize winner, she is the first writer in Sweden to win this honor and the first woman in the world to win this literary prize. Her portrait is printed on a Swedish 20 kronor banknote, and on the back of the banknote is a must-read book for Swedish children, Riding a Goose. Selma lagerlf was born in a hereditary aristocratic landlord family in Wemland province in western Sweden. She graduated from Lowell Women's Teachers College in Stockholm on 1885, and was hired to teach at Ronas Girls' Middle School in Lenzke for ten years, where she began her first literary work.